lundi 10 mars 2014

First offering of a new series of special La Salette spirituality meditations composed and presented by Fater Rene Butler, MS, director of the La Salette shrine in Enfield, NH.These meditations will always point to Sacred Scriptures, readings at the Mass of the following Sunday.

Note:To
understand the following reflections, two things would be helpful:
1) looking at the readings for the Sunday indicated (for example, using the
following web site:http://www.usccb.org/bibleand clicking on the appropriate date
in the calendar);
2) being familiar with the story and message of Our Lady of La Salette (click here to open a pdf page).

Abram had an encounter with God, who told him to “Go forth.”
Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud had an encounter with Our Lady who told
them to “come closer.” In both instances, once they went or came as directed,
there could be no turning back.
God took the initiative to speak to Abram, Mary took the
initiative to come to La Salette. There could be no turning back for them
either. And once they had said what they had to say, there was no taking any of
it back.
The disciples of Jesus, both the few who witnessed the
Transfiguration of Jesus and the many who would later come to believe in him,
faced the same reality. St. Paul puts in in these words: “Bear your share of
hardship for the Gospel.” No turning back.
But Lent is precisely a time of turning back. “Repent” is
the word used to translate a Greek word meaning to change one’s mind, and/or a
Hebrew word meaning to “turn,” change direction. And Mary’s message is
certainly a call to turn back to God, Jesus and the Church.
There is no contradiction. We “turn back” in the positive
biblical and La Salette sense precisely because we have “turned back” in the
negative sense, i.e. turned away.
Mary enumerates a certain number of fundamental ways in
which her people have turned away and weeps over the consequences. Then she
holds out new hope with the words, “If they are converted”—another word meaning
“turn around”!
This can be a time of transformation for us, if we take to
heart this call to conversion, each finding our own way back to deeper faith
and more active participation in the life of the Church, open to where these
might lead us, not holding back.
“Penance, prayer and zeal” make up a recurring theme in the
spirituality of the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette. We might paraphrase
it as, “Turning back to God, communicating with him, and dedicating ourselves
to his service.” We are anxious to share it with more and more people, and
pleased to be able to do so.